Thanks to Mother Superior
Here Goes:

4 jobs you've had in your life:
- Warehouse helper (Temp Job after O'level cheap labor)
- Helped around my father's food stall
- Army Sergeant
- Facility Management

4 movies you could watch over and over:
- Constantine

- Matrix Trilogy







- Rambo trilogy






- Back to the Future Trilogy (watched 200 times)







4 TV shows you love(d) to watch:
- House

- Phua Chu Kang







- 24






- CSI






4 places you've lived:
- KK Hospital
- Bencoolen Street
- Potong Pasir
- Sengkang

4 places you've been on vacation to:
- Australia
- Malaysia
- Hong Kong
- Bangkok






4 places you would rather be
- Japan (love the service)
- Thailand (love the people)
- Hollywood (love the movies)
- Korea (love the Kim-chi)

4 of your favourite foods:
- Beef Noodle
- Soft Shell Crab
- Cockles
- White Chocolate

4 of your favourite beverages:
- Mocha
- Orangina
- Iced Water with a twist of lime
- Fresh Milk

4 (or more) websites you visit daily:
- My Own Blog
- Yahoo mail
- Asia-one
- All blogs I know

Not tagging anyone

"I Want a Violin"

Kids wants to be cool...

Sometime ago, Isabel saw her cousin play her violin. I guess she's been impressed by her cos the next thing she wants was to learn to play violin.

Some time later while we were shopping, we pointed to a picture of a little girl playing violin, Isabel got upset. I asked her why.

"I don't want people to learn violin"

That's when we realized that she wants to learn it cos she thinks its uncommon and it looks cool to have all the attention while playing the violin.

So now we're not sure whether to send her for lessons or not, what if her interest is only 三分钟热度 .

But in any case, we have to fine tune her attitude first, make sure her heart is in the right interest before we proceed.

How many people can still remember the original place of Punggol Seafood Resturant? Right at the end of Punggol Road.

I remember the beach there was never a pleasant sight... full of moss covered rocks and stones, but its a great place for tons of organism living and thriving in the moist area, its also a great place to catch crabs though.

But now the beach has been covered with beautiful white sand, although quite a lot of rubbish is being washed up to shore, but you still can find crabs during low tide when the rocks are exposed again.


The Pier is still there, its a good spot for fishing, although I don't know if the water condition favors any fishes, but still the view is great and it would be fun spending the evening there.

Isabel wanted to find something small, like a sea shell, but all we could find was some "See-Hum" (Cockles 蛤). I guess the beach is too new, it hasn't swept up much sea shells to shore.

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For the first time, Ally got a hair cut... professionally that is...

For a 11 months old, she can really stay still while the hairdresser gets the job done. Of course, Isabel helped to distract her by standing in front, sing song and act silly keeping her focused.

Next is to feed her with bits of biscuits as treats. Usually she don't let strangers to touch her, but I guess she kind of like this hairdresser, so she cooperated well.






"Huh?... What you doing to my hair? What you doing to my beautiful curls?"







"OOooohhh... ok not bad la. Look like mushroom."





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Isabel went shopping with me and her grandparents...

To make good use of her, also to make her feel useful, I asked her to stand in a corner to "Jaga" the goodies while we look at other stuff. I taught her to hold her mini umbrella, which she so proudly possesses, like a soldier holding a weapon.

She really did her job well.

Don't be fooled by her smiling face in the picture, when she was serious, she was ready to hit anyone who comes near our belonging.

Singapore Gahmen plans to pay a one-off cash reward bonus of between S$100 to S$200 to army guys and the reservists.

A week ago, the Gahmen said it would consider giving low-wage workers a one-off bonus as part of a S$1 billion programme to help the city-state's poorest.


Some estates are "suddenly" upgraded with facilities like more play-area for children and fittness area for old folks.


All are signs that an election may be held soon...

How would you react when you see the train door closing in your face but you are on the outside of the train? Do you run for it? Or calmly wait for the next one?

I witnessed this Daredevil who ran for a closing door 6 meters away.

Yes, he reached the door in time but couldn't get through it, caught himself smack between 2 doors.

"OMG..." I thought he's going to be torn apart between them if the train moves... But he wiggled himself free BACK to the platform. Ha ha.. for all he has been thru, he should have wiggled INTO the train.

So when the train moved away, he was left standing there feeling super embarrassed since there were so many people watching his stunt.

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Chinatown is getting more and more robust these days, with the opening of the 500 stalls, people are happily stall-shopping-no-buying. I know someone who knows one of the stall owner, he said "Now is not making much money, people look see look see only, waiting for the last minute to cut our throat"

Yesterday, I saw a cute sight there. Few brave teachers brought about 10 pre-schoolers to the heart of the Chinatown for an excursion, showing them our very own heritage and experiencing the heat and smelling other people's B.O in the mid of the day.

The kids seems to be more interested in the drinks and ice-cream rather than the Lup-Cheong and mandarin oranges. Seriously... they are only waist high, what do you expect them to see?

It reminds me of the time we brought Isabel to Bangkok weekend market, 95% of the time she was on my shoulder including eating and drinking. The only time she came down to the ground was for ice-cream, trying out new clothing and look at the puppies.

Runs in the Family

I know I like to watch TV. But with the coming of my 2 princesses, I've cut it down drastically. If I need to watch, it'll be after they have all gone to bed... including my lovely wife.

But I just realized that my younger daughter also likes to watch TV... she don't eat her cerel or porridge without watching her favourite DVD.

I tried feeding her without the TV on, but all she does is shake her head and push my hand away... but once the show is on, she just quietly slurps up everything.

I guess it really runs in the family to be a TV addicts.

Shopping for New year goodies


The best time to shop for any new year goodies is now, any later you'll risk getting heat stroke from the jam packed crowd.

Here you see the man cutting up wind dried pork. "Golden Ham" Steam it, best eat with plain congee.



New Year decorations should always include some signs of spring, the best will be some plantations.

The branches you see are full of flower buds, normally covered in shells, but once its fallen off, you'll see a hairy little thing inside.

The price for sweets has dropped by $0.20, now selling at $0.80 per 100g.

Muah Shu (Muah Chee) 100g = $0.80
Common Ground nuts 500g = $4.00
Hong Kong Roasted Red seeds 500g = $8.00

Bak Guah?
Lim Chee Guan:
500g = $22.00
600g = $26.00
1kg = $44.00
(Normal weekday Queue is average 50 person at any one time)

Bee Jin Hiang:
600g = $22.80
1kg = $38.00
(Normal weekday Queue is average 4 person at any one time)

You can sample the goodies before buying them, but please don't litter. Its really horrible.

Sample Sample

Its a well known fact that people like free things. I like free things... Newspaper, drinks, post-cards, food sample.

A good place to find food sampling is Carrefour, both Suntec and Plaza Sing. Even at age of 3, Isabel already knows that there's free food there.

Whenever we go shopping there, suddenly she'll become hungry and say: "Daddy I want to eat something!!!"

At first I didn't know she meant to eat the samples, but as the trend became clearer, it also became a habit for her to have it.

She'll sit in the trolley and I'll be pushing her from kiosk to kiosk sampling munchies from tasty deep fried chicken, baked cookies, Ham to grapes and freshly blended fruit/vegetable juices.

Once, she tried the grinded lettuce leaf juice... she spit out faster than I could say: "nice?" I tried very hard not to laugh out loud as the free food lady was still watching us with suspicious eyes... (Hey, I only took 3 cups of different kind of juices from her what...)

Of course we don't just eat and never buy anything, we do buy their products if its nice and everyone likes it.

Famous Words of ISabel Wai Si

"Mphmmm... I so angry with you."

"Daddy I finished my rice, can I go play?"

" Daddy... PLeeeeaasseeeee...."

"Nah-nah-pooh-pooh"

Like I said... Christmas and new year went by without much celebration.

But in Singapore, we are never lack of a time to celebrate. Hari Raya Haji came, now its time for the biggest celebration for all chinese in the world.

CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!


A time for feasting for 15 days... I remember when I was a kid, I used to love going to places for visiting, the elders would without fail give me a Red Packet. But now being a married man, I'm expected to give Red Packets to the children.

As a kid, the best thing to have is really the tons of new year goodies to eat. Ranging from candies, to bbq pork, biscuits, tarts...

The best place to shop for these new year goodies will be China Town.

Maybe its for sake of the tourists, maybe its for better of controlling prices, but every year its still the main place to be.

We are now 2 and a half weeks to the start of new year, prices are still at the high side. Everyone knows that the closer is the date to the new year, the cheaper will the prices be.

The best time to buy the things is at the moment before the stroke of mid-night.
Stall owners are pratically giving it for free.

Red Melon Seeds now selling at $6 for 500g

Pistachios Nuts now selling at $8 for 500g

But you just wait and see, they will drop like the stock market in 1997.

Chinese like to eat preserved food, even now with all the technologies in high tech refrigeration for freshness, chinese new year is still a time to eat preserved food.

When you are eating it, just don't think how it was made or what is in it... especially the "Lap Cheong" waxed sausages... close your eyes and enjoy.

my personal favorite is the waxed duck, preserved by blowing it dry in the northen wind in mainland china.

I'll be updating here with all the prices and places to shop in Chinatown.

What's wrong with him???

This man had his hands in the face for as long as I can remember.

Weird!!!



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See anything wrong here???

NO SHELTER!!!

Its bad enough that handicap people are to be in wheel chair, how do you expect them to push themselves up and down the ram in the rain?

Having a heart for them is not enough, please have some sense too.

Its like those lift calling buttons that are meant for Handicap, but its installed 3 inches below the buttons for the non-handicap people. Come on... why can't they just install one lower button instead of one above another. Are they to be mocked at like this???

Handicap people are not treat with a better sense, I ever heard of certain movie theatre having a motroised platform for wheelchair to move up/down the stairs, but one fine day, came a handicap person in a wheel chair, Vola! the machine doesn't work. It has not been serviced for a long time cos the management feels that they are wasting a lot of money to service something that almost never been used.

Can you believe that???

Christmas and New year went by without much celebration, the decorations are taken down and back into their various boxes stacked into a cornor where it will stay there for another 300 over days waiting for the next Christmas. The Christmas tree is also back into the store room. Somehow my maid managed to stack it high and saved some space in the store.

On new year's eve, my father in law came flying back from vietnam for a visit. For us, we wanted to fetch him to make him feel welcome. For my 2 princesses, it means a trip to the award winning airport, to take some pictures and videos.

We ditched our maid leaving her to be home to complete her chores. With almost the entire kitchen and wardrobe stuffed into the back pack (Hot/cold water, milk powder, poridge in thermos, milk bottles, diapers, extra clothing) we were on our way.

Food in the airport is almost just as horrible as food on the plane, we found that out as we tried out an unheard fast food outlet call the 'P****e". It serves deep fried chicken, french fries and the worst tasting bread I've ever tasted... its beyond tastless... its "bite-n-spit" kind of tastless. I wonder how airport management chooses its tenants.

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The only celebration was a gathering on the post of new year. Few years ago, this kind of gatherings were usually quieter, but now, almost all of us have kids... the noise level has risen by 300%.

At the rate of 3 kids per year, the gov't should be giving us a medal each... ha

The wives gather and talk about kids, the men sit in a group talk about technology and stuff. The kids are all over the place.

Also nowadays gatherings like these don't last long either. The kids get cranky and tired, then its time to go home.

My second Princess is growing up fast...

At10 months, she is wearing clothings that Isabel used to wear when she was one and a half to two years old.

She is almost able to walk, holding on to table and chair as she moves along, but more often she'll fall. She's a tough cookie, unlike Isabel who fell face flat once, and took two month to regain her confidence to stand and walk again, Ally on the other hand, after serveral falls with cuts and bruises on her face, she still want to stand up and walk.
If she were to crawl, she can crawl really fast... once I left her playing in the leaving room, I went to the toilet to wash my hands, I turned around and found her on the kitchen floor playing with the slippers.

She's going to be one year old by 11th of Feb, wonder how we should be celebrating for her.

Isabel is a regular "Cow-Girl" she likes to ride on kiddy rides from the Singapore road side Pasat Malam, to the Malaysia Genting Highland indoor theme park... she tried them all.

Choo-choo train, Merry go round, Viking, airplane, Helicopter, Elephant, Frog... she's no stranger to any of them.

When we were in Genting, it was raining for most of the time, we were pretty much stuck indoor.

And having Isabel running around us means me and my lovely wife will not be having any "activities" in the room, even in the room, we're watching cartoon channel most of the time...

So... everyday, we brought her to the indoor theme park riding the Merry Go Round no less than 5 times. My eyes were seeing stars after every ride. For her every ride seems to be something new. She can remember which horse she has been on, which she has not... although they all look the same to me.

Her new favorite ride now is the Viking. Surprised?

We were worried that she'll cry when the ride started, but to our surprise, she was laughing and having a good time. She even raised her hands over her head like a pro thrill rider.

Confirm this is not from my side of the family.